Marvin-PA's Music Page

(Everything to do with) Music

I count myself lucky to have a fairly wide appreciation of musical tastes. Everything from Abba to Zappa (Frank) with such greats as Genesis, Motorhead and R.E.M. along the way.

Eventually, I'd like to think this will be a source of information on a wide variety of bands (mostly my faves) with as much interesting information as I can dredge up. What it won't be is a repository of lyrics. These can be found throughout the Web and it doesn't need repeating here. (While looking for some information on the topic below, I found approximately thirty different sites which all had the same lyrics, and I have no doubt that this number represented only a small proportion of similar sites.)

Once upon a time I used to spend the majority of my disposable income on buying music. Of course I was single and living at home then so I didn't have too much use for money other than feeding my insatiable desire for self-amusement. Now that we've moved away from vinyl to CDs and the cost has increased beyond reason. I had this glorious fantasy for years that everyone on the planet would wise up and stop buying the little buggers for just a few short months; the loss of earnings by the major record company's would be so devastating that they would be forced to bring the prices down to sensible levels rather than con the public out of huge profits, but of course like all good fantasies it never happened. So instead I spend my time trawling through HMV and Virgin in their endless sales for albums I should have bought years ago.

And so it was that I finally bought OK Computer by Radiohead, and since it is by far and away my current favourite I would like to share an appreciation of it.

I first heard of Radiohead with the release of Creep. I flipped immediately when I heard it and immediately bought the EP. Although the other tracks are firm favourites of mine now, they weren't as immediately accessible as the title track. But I did like them and I met a friend who suggested I should check out the album, Pablo Honey. I did and was suitably impressed. But it was certainly not top of my all-time favourite list. It didn't get more than a few plays.

Not too long ago, I saw a video of Paranoid Android late one night on Sky. I didn't make the connection at first, but that cranky series of images of a couple of weirdoes trolling around looking at a naked woman, helping a rather weird man hack his limbs off and otherwise doing some strange stuff, kind of worked it's way in. The music followed closely behind and I found myself whistling the tune for weeks. Of course all the while I was totally oblivious to the fact that these were the same people.

Creep and the other tracks on the Pablo Honey album were raw and punchy while Paranoid Android was slow, calculated and polished. It has a creepy, haunting feel and demands attention. As videos go, the animation and the images also helped to make the music more immediate than it really is. But then another single is released and another great video.

No Surprises is another must-have number. The video (parodied at least twice that I know of) is simple and yet one that shouts "watch me". The song itself was one that I eagerly waited for on the radio and always got full volume when my local station allowed themselves the luxury of playing it. And thus it was that my next album purchase was OK Computer.

I have difficulty faulting any single one of the tracks and can wholeheartedly concur with the commendations it has received from the music press. If it isn't THE best album of 1998 (?) it must certainly rate as among my top ten, perhaps even on the verge of being No 1!!